Thank You for Nothing
by KingoftheMoon
Summary: First it started with heroes seeing doubles of themselves walking in the streets as normal people - then Tim meets someone he recognises but never met. Then, he finds out that maybe he's already met Superboy before, in another life.


**Thank You for Nothing  
**_**King of the Moon**_

**x**

**x**

The news had been going around for a while – that the people of the hero community have been spotting doubles of themselves.

It wasn't really that much of a big deal at first, especially since it was Green Lantern that it first happened to. Bruce once (fleetingly) told me the green-donned guy acted pretty incompetent half the time and I'm pretty sure the rest of the Justice League thinks so as well. They must have thought he was just imagining things, or he didn't see the guy properly enough.

But then it started happening to other heroes, like Flash, then Wonder Woman. And people take her pretty seriously. The more heroes it happened to the more worried everyone started to get, especially since they could never, ever catch them.

If they really _were _doubles, they would have the same powers and mindsets. They would probably know how to get away from you, and a lot of the other heroes didn't know the others' secret identities (and it was wanted that way), so getting others to capture your double for you was a bit of a risk.

**x**

**x**

I was at the manor; I don't visit much often anymore, and even though I can definitely fix my own gear, who better than to get Alfred to fix your stuff?

Dick was in the cave – he was on the batcomputer reading Bruce's files on what little information he's scraped up about the doubles – if this weren't important to him, he would have done his own research; Dick only used Bruce's files if he wanted information fast. He was chewing his lip, and I could tell he was bothered by something.

He turns on the chair when he senses my presence and he grins jerkily, "Hey, Tim."

"Dick," I pointedly glance at the computer, "you saw one, didn't you?"

He hesitates before answering, "No… Yes," he sighs and runs a hand through his hair that's all tousled up from swinging. "I don't know."

I stride towards the computer and skim through what he was reading, "How could you _not _know if you saw someone who looks exactly like you?"

"That's the thing," he looks at me in the eye, "I saw someone, they didn't look like me, but I just know they have something to do with the doubles."

"Okay… who was it?"

Dick sags into his chair a little, "I was on patrol and I was fixing up some guys who were causing trouble, and there was this one guy who was watching – when I was finished he grinned at me and he said, 'Red? What happened to blue stripes?'"

What was that supposed to mean? The Nightwing outfit has always had red. "Well… _did _you know him?"

"I know I haven't met him," he rubs his forehead in concentration, "but I just _recognised _him – when I saw his face he just felt really, really familiar, like I was _supposed _to know him."

I didn't see the big deal, he was probably some guy who interviewed Nightwing before, or someone he saved and didn't remember. "What did he look like?"

"Green eyes," Dick says immediately.

When I'm interrogating a civilian, the first thing they ever state about a person is their hair or skin – they're hardly ever sure of the eye-colour unless they had focused on it, or the person asked about wore a balaclava. "Well _you _were paying attention," I say.

"I wasn't actually. It was dark," he shakes his head, "but I just _knew."_

Okay, _that's_ odd. I decided not to comment on it, "What else did he look like?"

"Ginger, freckles…" Dick is leaning back, staring at the ceiling and a distance look fogs his eyes as he lists the not-so-stranger's attributes. "_Wally," _he suddenly says under his breath.

I blink, "What?"

"Tim," he's focused again, "I don't think they're bad guys."

"Did you talk to him?"

He shakes his head, "I looked away for a second, and when I looked back he was gone."

I feel the corners of my mouth tugging down in bewilderment, "In that amount of time? You would have seen him, or caught up with him at least."

Dick shrugs, "he was a speedster."

_I thought he said he didn't see him. _"How would you know?"

He's looking at me straight in the eyes again, and it's all so intense. "I don't know, Tim. I don't know how I'd know."

**x**

**x**

I didn't ever really figure out what Dick was going on about, until about a week later when _I _was out on patrol. I had just landed on the ground from swinging and then _she _walked straight into me.

She was blonde and blue-eyed. A lamplight above us flickered and I thought she was wearing an eggplant-coloured hoodie, but when the light settled I saw that it was actually pink.

It should have been purple.

"Ow, Tim!" she yells and I stare at her, shocked, and then _she _looks mortified. Slowly, she lifts her hand to her mouth as if she said something she wasn't supposed to. "Oh, _shit_," she curses and turns on her heel to bolt.

"Wait, Steph – " I reach out.

She turns around, eyes wide.

_-anie. Stephanie Brown._

It's like what Dick said: I haven't met her, but I recognise her. And it felt wrong not knowing her. I suddenly understood why Dick was so upset.

She slowly relaxes her stance and cautiously but genuinely smiles at me – I suddenly feel like something inside me is missing.

"Cass told me what you've done to your hair," is all she says.

I _know _I should be worried that a girl named Cass has been watching me, but for some reason I'm not surprised at all.

_Cass. _The name squeezes my heart like Stephanie's does.

"How is she?" I lick my dry lips and _Jesus Christ what am I saying?_

Steph's smile grows and her brows crinkle, she doesn't answer the question, and I know if she does I'd want her to stay, so she better leave while she can. "Take care of yourself, Tim, and please – don't go looking for us." She turns and walks away and all I do is watch – I watch as she disappears into the shadows in a way only Bruce could have taught her.

**x**

**x**

A couple of hours later I'm telling Dick, he slumps down onto a couch in his messy apartment and listens – obviously still bothered by his 'Wally'.

"I think," he says when I'm finished; "they're from another universe, you know, with all the doubles and people we recognise."

"But why are they here?" I pace around, "_How? _Could it be a dimension slip? Is it permanent or temporary?

Dick rests an arm over his eyes and sighs. I know what he's thinking and I'm thinking it too – _I don't know._

**x**

**x**

A month later I'm in my civvies going for some coffee, and on the other side of the street I see a pair walking – they're laughing about something and it's the most picturesque scene I've ever seen but the thing is –

I'm one of them.

My double's hair is longer than how I have it now, and he doesn't have a fringe that goes to the side like mine does, rather he has it tucked behind both his ears.

Okay, that's not the only thing, because right next to me (my double?) is _Superboy._

His hair is much, much shorter and he seems stockier than the one that I know, as if he's had more time to buff up. They both stop laughing and just settle for grinning contentedly, Superboy rests a hand on my double's back and he looks at my double in a way no-one's ever looked at me, and my double looks at him in a way I've never looked at anyone.

The empty feeling inside me returns – what would I do to have something like that? What did we go through? How much would I let someone know about me? Questions of trust and consequences run through my mind, and suddenly I'm remembering things that don't belong to me.

The memories come in flashes.

We're young, both of us. I'm in a green and red Robin costume that's not as high-tech as the one I wore in _this _life and Superboy is wearing a leather jacket over a red and blue costume. We're inside a spaceship (_The Max, _a voice in my mind whispers) and we're arguing, I can _feel _my anger, but I'm worried, too, because Superboy (Kon?) is just so _stupid _and _spontaneous _and likes to throw himself in danger.

_What the hell is a Young Justice? _I think as nostalgia hits my gut.

In the second flash of memory we're older, and Kon (_Conner._) is wearing a black shirt with the S-shield and jeans, and we're talking about something that's a secret, which we only trust each other with. I know that out of all the members in the Teen Titans we have a friendship or bond that nobody else has.

_We're best friends, _I realise. I watch as the scene unfolds and I talk with a trust, ease and comfort that I have never spoken to anyone with while I'm wearing the mask, except for maybe Dick and Alfred.

Suddenly the scene is snatched from me and I'm leaning over a body, it's so still and _my_ body is shaking as I grip a very familiar black T-shirt, and I'm not only sobbing, because I'm yelling. I remember getting the news (I was in Bludhaven at the time) and the moment I saw his body I _ran. _

I ran, and I screamed, and my knees failed me.

_Don't leave me, Conner. Don't you dare leave me…!_

He doesn't hold me back, he doesn't move.

Another scene plays and I'm holding him again, _hugging _him. I feel a total sense of relief and happiness (and something else) and the need to sob – from happiness this time – is overwhelming.

He's saying something, he sounds awkward and tense and he cautiously places an arm around my back. I feel his heart beating erratically - I've never been so glad to hear it alive and beating.

We talk, he sounds a little tense until I take my cowl (since when did I wear a cowl?) off, and he smiles.

I don't know why, but he would always speak to me differently every time I took off my mask, maybe because I was just _Tim. _Not Robin, or Red Robin, who got angry at the team, commanded the team, fought villains, no – just Tim Drake, some seventeen-year -old with weird hobbies and quite a varied taste in music.

The conversation's tone changes and he says:

"_If you need me, just yell. I'll hear you."_

I'm not bothered by it, the fact that he listens to me all the way from Kansas or wherever he'll be.

"_I know you will, Conner."_

With a small exchange of words, he flies off. I never figured why he flew to me that night for a couple of minutes just to fly off again. Did he fly all the way from his home? Or the Titans Tower? Maybe he was just around and wanted to say hi.

Suddenly I'm back on the streets, Conner and my double are already past me and I watch their backs get further away from me and be incredibly close to each other. I've never felt more envious in my life, seeing myself so content.

As I grab my coffee my mind wanders to _my _Superboy - the one that I know.

But I'm being ridiculous. He's not Conner Kent, the Superboy from those flashes of memories, no matter how much he looks or sounds or smiles like him.

Although maybe, just _maybe _he thinks like him, and maybe I think like my double. I can't help but think about me and Superboy's doubles - they didn't get along so well at first, and…

I scoff and down my coffee. _No way._

I mean, he's not exactly Superman himself.

**fin**

**author's notes**

okay, that's it. I'd like to make clear that the last line is from Robin and Superboy's first meeting in the pre-reboot comics. Superboy was being a regular butt and Tim's like 'yeah well you're not exactly Superman yourself i mean it took you like eight hours to get here'. Y'know, as they do. They really didn't get along at first, but then they became the cutest friends, and i think, even with Scott Lobdell doing Teen Titans, that it's possible for it to happen with this dumb reboot going on.

Anyway don't ask me about the whole 'double' thing going on. It's supposed to be, erm, ~mysterious~

because i don't know either. I have this thing where i put characters in fics that like aren't supposed to be there. They appear, and then disappear. idk, idk.

anyway since Wally and Steph and Cass aren't in the reboot, and if they are/will be, it won't be the same, so i just really wanted them to be in this fic. Especially since i love Dick/Wally and steph and cass are really important to Tim.

Oh, and the fic's title is the song title from the band Elizabeth & the Catapult, which i think fits them, because tim and conner built so much trust and love between them, and suddenly reboot, and it's all gone and forgotten.


End file.
